Problem plastic hunt

Some plastic products and packaging in our home are designed to be single-use and aren’t easily recycled. These are problem plastics. In this activity you will go on a treasure hunt around your home to see if you can find any of these problem plastics. Pair this activity with Plastic bin weigh-in to address more widely used plastics in the home.

Ages 7+

20 minutes

Part of:

Common Seas Ocean Plastics Academy

How to do it How to do it
What you'll need What you'll need
Find out more Find out more

Overview

This activity goes hand-in-hand with the Plastic bin weigh-in activity. This problem plastic hunt focuses in on some single-use items that are also hard to recycle. The aim is for young people and the whole family to know more about these problem plastics and what can be done to reduce their use.

This Problem plastic hunt is best done as a joint activity with the whole family.

Use the information from this activity and the Plastic bin weigh-in to create your own Plastic hero pledge. Stick this on your fridge or somewhere where the whole family can see it to remind you of your promise to the planet.

Activity steps

You are on the hunt for problem plastics around the house. Get to know these problem plastics using the Problem plastics hunt guide.
Begin the plastic hunt by exploring your home to find the problem plastics.
Once you spot a problem plastic, write the name or number of the problem plastic on the map that is shown in the Problem plastic hunt guide. You can print this out or draw your own)
Think about what you discovered using the questions below.
Look at the reflections section below and consider sharing your thoughts online to inspire others. Please remember to tag @commonseas and use #SeaChampions so we can learn as well. Thank you!

Reflection

Use the Problem plastic hunt guide to think about how you currently use plastic in your home. With a friend or parent discuss the following questions.

Were you surprised by how many or how few of the problem plastic you found?
Do you think there are any problem plastics which you can get rid of from your home?
How will you get rid problem plastics from your home?

Further ideas

You can extend the learning about reducing plastic waste, by using some of the lessons from the Ocean Plastics Academy Teacher Resources. For ages 5 to 7, use the lesson What can I do?. For ages 7 to 11, use the lessons What can I do? Part one and Part two. For students aged 11 to 14, try the geography lesson, Approaches to reducing ocean plastic pollution.

Safety guidance

This activity involves a lot of movement around the home so adult supervision could be recommended depending on the age of the child.

If you are posting work on social media, this should be done via a parent, guardian or school account for children under the age of 13. Children over the age of 13 should still be supervised by an adult. Check out the Thinkuknow website for more guidance on online safety.

Over 300 million tonnes of plastics are produced worldwide ever year. Around 8 million tonnes of this finds its way into our ocean. One way to reduce ocean plastics is to simply reduce the amount of plastics we consume.

There are different ways of tackling the issue of problem plastics. The individual and family actions listed on the Problem plastic hunt guide and in the Plastic bin weigh-in activity are just one way.

Activity problem plastic hunt cotton buds — Cotton buds are an example of problem plastics

Governments are also starting to make changes to reduce single-use plastics.

In the UK, the Government is introducing bans on plastic straws, drinks stirrers and cotton buds to stop these problem plastics being used all together. The Government has also put in place a tax, which means that large stores have to charge the customer if they want a single use carrier bag. This helps encourage people to bring a reusable bag. Other schemes are also being considered such as deposit returns schemes (DRS) for plastic bottles. This means that customers will pay a small extra fee (a deposit) when they buy the product (for example a soft drink), which is then refunded when the empty bottle is returned to the proper location. This system can help to make sure that products can be properly recycled.

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